B2B virtual credit cards are becoming more common for commercial transactions, with no signs of slowing down for the foreseeable future. Yet so many businesses accepting virtual cards on B2B transactions don’t fully understand how they work or what they cost to process.
So if you process B2B transactions, you need to keep pace with what’s happening and understand how it impacts your bottom line.
What Are B2B Virtual Credit Cards?
B2B virtual credit cards are single-use or limited-use card numbers generated digitally for specific transactions or vendors processing commercial payments.
Unlike physical corporate cards, these virtual cards exist only as a 16-digit number with an expiration date and CVV code, which typically gets generated through a company’s accounts payable system or payment platform.
How B2B Virtual Payments Work
Let’s take a look at how B2B virtual credit cards work in the real world. Here’s the typical flow of what happens:
- A business needs to pay a supplier or vendor (and doesn’t want to use a check, physical corporate card, or ACH transfer).
- Their system generates a unique virtual card number specifically for that particular transaction.
- The card number can be limited to a specific dollar amount, valid only for a set period of time, and restricted to a particular merchant.
- Cards can also be configured for one-time usage or recurring payments.
- Once the transaction is completed, the virtual card number becomes useless and can’t be used again anywhere else.
For businesses using virtual cards, the advantages range from fraud protection to easier reconciliation, detailed transaction data, and rebates or rewards.
But for the merchants accepting B2B virtual payments, they come with their own processing considerations (particularly around costs).
The Growth of B2B Virtual Card Payments
The rise of virtual card adoption in the commercial space has been largely fueled by the card networks. Mastercard has been aggressively promoting virtual cards as a solution for B2B payments, positioning them as a way to streamline accounts payables while providing better controls and security.
A new study from Juniper Research suggests that virtual cards will become the fastest-growing B2B payment method over the next five years.
- $186 trillion in payments will be processed via B2B virtual payments in 2025.
- That number is expected to exceed $224 trillion by 2030.
- In addition to the 20% growth in volume over this five-year stretch, it’s also expected that the transaction value will increase by 370%.
The numbers don’t lie. There’s real growth coming in the B2B virtual payment space, and it’s going to have a significant impact on your payment processing costs.
How Virtual Credit Cards Impact B2B Payment Processing Costs
In terms of accepting B2B virtual credit cards, the interchange rates aren’t the same as traditional commercial or corporate cards.
There’s also a pretty significant variation on how these transactions are treated by Visa and Mastercard at the card network level. Each network takes a slightly different approach.
Visa Has Dedicated Interchange Rates for B2B Virtual Cards
Visa has a completely different interchange category that applies to virtual cards.
Initially, only certain MCC codes were eligible for these rates. Back in 2022, Visa’s Flexible B2B Virtual Interchange Program had 13 different interchange categories with program rates ranging from 0.80% to 2%.
The program has since been drastically simplified, and as of October 18, 2025, Visa has consolidated all Business-to-Business Virtual Payments to a 2% interchange rate.
They also eliminated the MCC code restrictions, making this interchange category available to all Visa Global B2B Virtual Payments.
It’s also worth noting that B2B virtual cards are not eligible for Visa’s new CEDP rates. So even if you’re a “verified” merchant submitting Level 3 card data on commercial transactions, you’re still going to pay 2% at the interchange level if your customers are paying with a virtual commercial Visa card.
Mastercard Has a Separate Flex Program Fee for B2B Virtual Payments
Mastercard takes a different approach than Visa. Rather than creating an entirely separate interchange category for virtual cards, they apply their standard B2B and commercial interchange rates to these transactions.
But they apply a Mastercard Flex Program Fee of 0.10% assessed on total volume of virtual cards.
So basically, you’re paying 10 basis points more than you normally would on every B2B Mastercard transaction if your customers are using a virtual card.
In October 2025, Mastercard rolled out 35 new product codes that are eligible for this interchange category, effectively giving more businesses access to B2B virtual cards (meaning we’re also going to see more merchants accepting these transactions).
What This Means for Your Business
If you accept B2B virtual payments, virtual card acceptance needs to be part of your cost analysis. And this matters for several reasons:
- Expect to see a higher volume of virtual cards from your B2B customers in the coming years.
- Effective rates may rise, as both Visa and Mastercard charge more at the interchange level for virtual card acceptance.
- You need to keep a close eye on your statements to identify line items tied to virtual B2B cards and ensure your processor isn’t marking them up more than they should be.
- It’s even more important now to understand optimization opportunities when processing B2B transactions to offset rising costs associated with virtual cards.
If your business aligns with the average, you can expect to see 20% more of these cards processed in the next five years.
And while you can’t change interchange rates, that doesn’t mean you just need to sit back and watch your costs creep up.
There are proven ways to reduce B2B processing costs even as virtual card volume rises. You can take other steps to lower your effective rate, and the B2B virtual cards won’t have as big an impact on your bottom line.
Don’t Overpay on B2B Credit Card Processing
Like all aspects of payment processing, virtual card acceptance is another area where processors attempt to mark up costs significantly beyond the actual interchange rate and network fees.
You shouldn’t be paying any separate fees or additional costs to your processor beyond your standard markup.
The key here is understanding which fees are legitimate (the actual interchange rates and assessments for virtual B2B cards), and which fees are bogus (random markups invented by your processor).
Scrutinize every single line item on your monthly statements and continue to calculate your effective rates to track any changes in your total costs. If you’re noting a higher-than-normal bump in B2B transactions, it’s possible that your processor is trying to take advantage of the situation.
Just because interchange rates are higher at the interchange level, it doesn’t give your processor an excuse to raise rates or add fees (but many of them use this as a justification).
And definitely don’t try to surcharge B2B transactions paid with virtual cards. This is already a bad idea for B2Bs, but the complexity of applying it to virtual transactions will likely turn off and confuse your customers who are trying to do something that’s safer and secure for them (without having to pay extra for it).
Final Thoughts
B2B virtual cards aren’t going away.
They’re becoming more prevalent as businesses look for ways to go digital with their payment processes and corporate purchasing.
As a B2B merchant, you need to understand how these transactions are processed and what they cost. Whether you’re seeing dedicated virtual interchange rates or Mastercard Flex Program fees on your statements, these costs deserve attention.
And as your virtual card volume grows, you need to take steps to ensure you’re not overpaying to protect your margins.
So if you process B2B payments and want to understand whether your costs are truly optimized, contact our team here at MCC. We’ll help identify where you might be overpaying and what opportunities exist to lower your costs.